


Graduation

by thedevilchicken



Category: DC Super Hero Girls (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Best Friends, Celebrities, Developing Relationship, F/F, Friendship/Love, Future Fic, Graduation, Secret Relationship, Self Confidence Issues, Standardized Tests, Superheroes, Vigilantism, Worldbuilding, planning for the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-04-01 07:10:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13993116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken
Summary: Kara looks forward to getting her superhero license.





	Graduation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VampirePaladin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/gifts).



Kara looks forward to getting her license. 

Sure, she'll have to pass her finals, and sure, so she's kinda nervous about that. Most of her friends at Super Hero High tell her it's no problem, she's totally sure to pass with flying colors (and not just 'cause she can really fly), but she's not so sure. When she thinks about it, it's like before she'd even made up her mind about school at all, when she was reading brochures at her sorta-kinda aunt and uncle's place and wondering where she might fit in, if anywhere. It's like when her powers were still new, when she was scared to clear her throat in case she blew Uncle Jonathan's tractor halfway to Metropolis and if she stared too hard she knew she might burn the side off of the barn with her stupid superpowered heat vision. When she thinks about finals, she feels like she's back when she'd just landed. Inside, not even too deep down, she's scared that she'll mess up. 

The thing is, everyone knows her name. Everyone calls her Supergirl but they know her name is Kara Zor-El and not just in school, either. She didn't really get it back when she still felt like a visitor on Earth because celebrities weren't a thing back home, not like this - not like autographs and trading cards and the stalkerazzi waiting at the gates like it's cool somehow to creep on high school students just 'cause they have superpowers. If she screws up, _everyone_ will know. If she flunks her test, _everyone_ will know. And okay, so she thinks maybe Aunt Martha and Uncle Jonathan would let her go live on the farm with them full time, and maybe she could get a horse that might remind her a little of Comet, and Krypto would be there, too, to keep her company. Or maybe she could go to school - to a regular school, one that doesn't teach stuff like Weaponomics and Intro to Super Suits. 

But, more than anything, Kara wants to be a superhero. Maybe that's why she's so nervous about it all, because everyone thinks she's just like her cousin, like Super Hero High's most famous graduate. They think she's just like Superman, but what if she's not? What is she's really, really not? Sometimes she thinks she might be good, but is she good _enough_?

Everyone knows Diana will pass. After all, she's Wonder Woman - her dad's a Greek god and her mom's queen of the Amazons, and she's really just kinda perfect even when Harley slips a whoopee cushion onto her seat in class. Hal already graduated and got called up to the Green Lantern Corps out on Oa, and Kara bets Jessica will be just as great - she's already aced Flyer's Ed and she's so good at Combatistics. Barda and Lady Shiva are a licensed double-team just waiting to happen and any city would be lucky to have them. And then there's Kara. And, she guesses, then there's Barbara, too. 

Barbara has it tough, though she never really complains about it. She's not superpowered like the rest of them, not super-strong, not super-fast, nothing like that at all. She's like the guy she's named after, really - she's like Batman over in Gotham because he doesn't have any superpowers, either, even if he sometimes acts kinda like he does. Kara figures Barbara will pass because she's great, she's really _great_ , and Kara's never known anyone else quite like her, but if she didn't pass...well, Kara bets she could get an apprenticeship with Batman till she could take the resit. After all, Batman didn't go to Super Hero High, but he was still the very first non-super licensed superhero. And sure, so no one knows his secret identity, not like they do Kara's and the others', but as long as he makes payments on his liability insurance, no one's gonna make him tell. Wayne Enterprises must make a heck of a sponsor, she thinks. They must have deep pockets. They must have a lot of faith.

Most of her friends tell her no worries, she's a shoo-in, it'll be a walk in the park when the time comes, and she knows the time is coming pretty soon. But Barbara doesn't tell her that - she takes her anxiety more seriously than the others do. When Kara says she's not sure how she'll ever find a sponsor when she's such a klutz sometimes, Barbara listens to her; Kara's pretty sure Barbara has the new Wayne Enterprises hero deal sewn up, even if it's not in writing yet, but who needs the second best Kryptonian? If she can't get a corporate deal like Babs or a gig selling action figures like her cousin Clark, she won't even be able to pay her license fee, let alone her compulsory insurance - not once the school's stops covering her like it does for all their students. If she went out heroing without insurance...well, the Justice League come down pretty hard on that. It's not only illegal: you'll never work as a hero again.

And okay, so maybe she could crowdfund like Harley plans to, but the last time she logged onto Twitter some guy asked her when she turns eighteen; Harley thinks the creepy countdowns are a riot, but she has a really weird sense of humor sometimes. Kara doesn't think she only thinks that because she's not from Earth, no matter how many times Harley tells her it is.

Barbara takes her seriously - she doesn't tell her not to worry, she just tells her to train. So they train together, every day. They push each other. They patrol and they fight crime together all around Metropolis, sometimes with Ace and Krypto along for the ride. They have dinner with Barbara's dad sometimes and they spent last Christmas with the Kents and sometimes they dress like regular girls just for a while, both in Barbara's clothes because Kara's are all pretty recognizable, and they share a slice of superfood cake someplace that's not the Capes and Cowls. She can't do that with the others. Honestly, she doesn't want to.

It almost feels nice when people don't know who they are except it sort of feels like cheating, Kara thinks, because they are who they are when it comes down to it; they're Batgirl and Supergirl, not just Barbara Gordon and Kara Zor-el. She just wishes she could take Barbara's hand sometimes when they're in their supersuits and not just jeans that don't quite fit her, when they're at school or out walking Ace and Krypto in the park and not in the back booth of a café over milkshakes, trying to keep a low profile. She wishes it wasn't always while they pretend they're not who they really are and that it's not all coming to an end before it even really began. Finals loom pretty huge. They both have tests to take. Then, Kara guesses, they'll go their separate ways. 

It still makes her smile, though, when Barbara reaches out and rests her hand over hers. It still makes her insides feel all fluttery, like they are right now, at their anonymous booth in their anonymous café, Barbara's fingers laced with hers. Maybe she's not from Earth, but she knows what that means and, for now, it's enough.

"We should work together when we graduate," Barbara says, suddenly, looking at their joined hands on the tabletop. 

Kara frowns. "I thought you were moving back to Gotham," she says, and Barbara looks at her, maybe just a little hopefully. 

"I guess I am," she says. "But you could come with me. We could rent an apartment. We could go to school by day and fight crime by night." 

And Kara can't help it - she grins at her. She squeezes her hand, careful but sincere. 

"I'd really like that," she says. Then Barbara's smiling, too.

She guesses if she ever needed a good reason to pass her test, she has it now. They're going to work together. She won't have to say goodbye.

Barbara has faith in her, and knowing that makes Kara swell with pride; right now, she feels like she could do anything, including pass the test and get her license. And when Barbara leans forward over the table and presses her lips to hers, she kinda feels like she wouldn't have to be Kryptonian to walk on air.

But maybe the most important part is that she thinks Barbara would still love her, even if she failed.


End file.
